The Jammu and Kashmir administration has suspended a teacher in the first such action against its employees after last week’s warning to them to desist from criticising the government on social media.

An order issued by the Ramban district administration said Joginder Singh, a teacher at Chanderkote government school, had been placed under suspension for violating government directions “regarding criticism of policies” on social media platforms.

Chief secretary Arun Kumar Mehta had last week issued the warning. Mehta had told all administrative secretaries to monitor the social media posts of employees on a regular basis and identify those criticising or commenting adversely on policies and achievements.

The government did not clarify which of its policies were criticised by Singh. The suspension order said it was found “after proper scrutiny” that Singh had four Facebook pages, two of which identified him as a teacher and two as a socio-political activist.

“It has been found that the said teacher has posted various posts criticising and commenting adversely about the Government policies on his Facebook page. Besides, he has concealed his identity (in two accounts) and made fake Facebook ID with a profession as socio-political activist and not a Government Teacher,” the order said.

The order by Ramban DC Musarrat-ul-Islam said the teacher shall remain attached to the office of the chief education officer pending an inquiry. Singh will not be allowed to take classes and won’t be paid his full salary during this period.

The inquiry will be headed by the additional district development officer.

The order said the government had withheld Singh’s salary in 2020 for allegedly misusing social media and the amount was released after a written apology.

The government has been following an iron-first policy to crush all forms of dissent in Jammu and Kashmir since the 2019 scrapping of special status. It has passed a series of orders in the past four years that have caused deep angst among the people.